Pulling the Strings
by Ice-doesn't-like-Yew
Summary: On his journeys stretching over hundreds of years, Pinocchio had made some enemies and when those enemies come to Ferryport Landing looking for him, the Grimms have yet another mess on their hands.  Set after book 4 and before book 5. Hints of Puckabrina.


**Hi guys, this is my first major fan-story which will be written sort-of like a normal Sisters Grimm novel except a lot shorter and no where near as good as Michael Buckley's work.  
>There are hints of Puckabrina but nothing too mushy or major. Set after 'Once Upon A Crime' and before 'Magic and other Misdemeanors'.<strong>

_Her body was limp, throbbing with pain as Sabrina ran through the woods. She couldn't see anything. All she saw was black. She could have mistaken herself for being blind, drove over the edge by illness. Unseen low-hanging branches whipped at her face and Sabrina wept tears of pain and fear. Someone chased after her, legs moving quickly, feet landing on the forest-floor softly and unevenly. _

_Sabrina could not run any further. She couldn't breathe. Her nose had blocked up, her throat refused to let anything pass, her body ached. She fell, slumped in a heap on the ground. She shivered in the night chill awaiting her impending doom. She wished that she had been given more time, that she could have met her end with her friends by her side. She lay down in the dirt, her eyes opening and closing. Her ear pressed against the ground, she listened to the footsteps slow down. It knew that she wasn't going to run anymore; that Sabrina Grimm, the most determined Grimm of them all, had given up._

_Feeling its presence in the frightening dark, Sabrina's body tensed. She knew that she definitely wasn't blind when she saw two red eyes glint devilishly. A voice came out, not its own. Its breath hot on her skin, Sabrina trembled._

"_I control you now."_

**Two weeks ago...**

The sound of hands slamming the ground, the flipping of shiny plastic, the disappointed groans and triumphant cheers irritated Sabrina Grimm to no end. Her eyes couldn't focus on the large-print writing on the weathered pages of her book, the words turning into fuzzy worms and sliding off the page. Her head began to throb. She looked up and glared hatefully at the group across the room from her.

"I hate Snap," Sabrina muttered quietly, lip curled up.

Puck, Uncle Jake and Daphne sat in a circle, eyes focused on a stack of cards in the middle. Their bodies slightly hovered over the nine-of-hearts currently on top of the pile, heads butting each other. It's Puck's turn. He glanced around, his hand trembling. Then quick as lightning, he threw a card down. From where she's sitting, Sabrina can tell it's another nine. Even though the fairy-boy's hand slammed down on the card as quick as he had thrown it on, Daphne's hand is first on the pile of plastic squares and Jake's in second. Daphne let out a whoop of triumph.

"I hate Snap!" Puck yelled, face crinkled.

He stood up and kicked at the pile, scattering the cards. One landed in Sabrina's lap. The Ace of Spades. She held it up to the light so she could clearly see the curving tendrils and intricate leaves and flowers, all fit snugly in the large black spade. But something at the bottom of the card drew her eyes. It was a crude drawing of a girl with blonde hair. It was her.

"Hey 'Brina, could you please throw that back," Uncle Jake asked, the other cards gathered up in his hands.

"What's this?" she turned the card over in her hand so they could see the drawing. Daphne covered her mouth to smother a giggle.

"That's you! You're the ace of spades, Puck's the jack of clubs and Uncle Jake's the king of spades!" Daphne exclaimed, hands flipping through the cards until she found the right cards to show her elder sister.

"What are you then?"

"I'm the nine of hearts."

Sabrina gave her a quizzical look. "Why not Queen of Hearts?"

Daphne shot the blonde girl a look that said 'don't-you-know?' She thought for a moment. Queen-of-Hearts, the new mayor of Ferryport Landing; tyrant, Grimm-hater and abuser of hearts (the thing she doesn't have) and the colour red. Sabrina nodded knowingly and flew the card, Frisbee-style, back to the group.

"Want to come join us?" Daphne asked Sabrina. She shuffled the card with quick, nimble hands.

"We need another player," Uncle Jake shrugged.

Sabrina glanced over to the corner where Puck sat bundled up in the corner, hugging his legs, bottom lip jutting out. The Trickster King was obviously not accustomed to failing but he certainly was great at being a 'sore loser'. Feeling everybody's eyes on him, magnificent pink wings sprung from his back and he hovered out of the room and up the stairs, grumbling the whole way. From upstairs they heard him yell, 'I'll win next time! You can bet on it. The Trickster King wins everything!"

After that nothing else was heard from the boy except the slamming of a door. "I think I'll pass," Sabrina said and began reading again. "This is probably going to be the only break we get from training for a long time so I'm going to use it and try to find a way to wake up Mum and Dad."

"Sabrina, have some fun," Daphne crawled over to her, gently taking the book out of her hands and closing it. "Just relax. We will find a way to wake them up but it's good to have fun now and then."

The older girl snatched the book back. "Then I'll find a way sooner!" she snapped.

It was Uncle Jake's turn. "Come on, just join in the fun."

"How can I have fun when mum and dad aren't?"

Uncle Jake understood that the girl had to be left alone. He motioned to the other girl to pack up the cards and they walked away to the kitchen. After a moment or two they resumed their game but shushed each other when the game got too loud. Sabrina felt frustrated. Why wasn't anyone trying to help her parents? Was a childish card game more important than waking them up?

Angry at the people that were supposed to care, Sabrina gathered up her books and lugged them up to her parent's room. The room was dark but she didn't need a light to see that they hadn't moved a bit since she had last seen them and they still smiled serenely despite the state they were in. When Sabrina was eleven, they had been kidnapped by a mysterious group called the Scarlet Hand, a band of war-waging, kidnapping everafters. They had been battling against the Hand since the Sisters Grimm had moved to Ferryport Landing, saving lives and homes of human and everafter alike.

A large mirror was set up against the wall. The glass was foggy, and didn't reflect things like a mirror should. It had a much more special purpose. The fog cleared and a face appeared. This would shock any normal person but the Grimm family were not normal people.

"Starfish, you okay?" Mirror asked.

"I'm fine. I'm just going to lie with my parents for a bit and read for a bit," Sabrina smiled the best she could. She climbed under the covers between her mother and father. It was warm and lovely. Leaning over Veronica, her beautiful mother, she switched on the bedside table-lamp. It was quiet. Knowing his cue, Mirror smiled at her and his face vanished back into the cavernous hall behind the mirror.

She flicked to the page where the words had begun to become unreadable. A book of folklore and urban legends written in the scrawl of one of her Grimm ancestors. It was a long shot but it was still a shot. Sabrina had to skip over some of the more disturbing ones. The last one was about sleep paralysis and the Turkey legend of a demon that sat on its victim's chest and would begin to strangle them. Some reported hearing the voices of the demon or Satan himself.

A painting of a devil sitting on a distressed woman's chest was the last thing she saw before her eyelids flickered to a shut.

* * *

><p>It was becoming hard to breathe. Sabrina's vision was hazy as she tried to focus on the familiar walls and ceiling of the room. But something was in the way. Her heart hammered against her ribcage looking for a way out. She tried to scream but it caught in her throat. She couldn't move. Not even a finger. She could only move her eyeballs around. There was something sitting on her chest. And it didn't look friendly.<p>

It was dark; the lights had been turned off. The glow Mirror let off was the only light source in the room. It appeared to be a little man. A huge nose wrapped in folds of skin and a toothy smile. Strands of wiry hair stood on end from an otherwise bald, freckled head. He was wearing an old suit that smelt musky. But the thing that stood out most was his hands that waved over her head, long bony fingers twitching as if in response to a song. He hummed a soft tune. Eyes stared down into hers.

Frightened out of her wits, Sabrina squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten. "_It's all a dream, it's all a dream, it's all a dream_," she repeated in her head over and over again. When she opened them the odd little man had vanished and the table-lamp was on again. She curled her finger. She let out a relieved sigh and got up, pushing her long blonde hair away from her face. There was no difference to the room at all except her rattled demeanour. But the feeling of warmth and love when she lay in between her parents was gone.

"Mirror?" she called out to him, making sure he was still there.

"Yes?" he said.

"Did you hear anything? Did anyone else come in?"

"No one. You feeling okay, Starfish?"

Sabrina took a moment to nod. She climbed out of the bed and down the stairs. It was just a dream. Yet it had seemed so real. But there was no way the little man could have gotten into the house without someone noticing. Mr. Canis was equipped with super-hearing, one of the advantages of being the Big Bad Wolf. She hesitated then knocked. The old man opened the door a crack, obviously struggling with himself. He had delved into his wolf form too far and he no longer could return to his normal self. He had a tail that stuck out from his trousers and two hairy hands and brown whiskers. Meditating just couldn't do it anymore.

"What is it, Sabrina?" he said softly yet there was a menacing tone to his speech.

"Did you hear anything near Mirror's room? Like someone humming?" she asked, frightened of what his answer might be.

The corners of his mouth twitched, as if being pulled back. "No, I heard nothing," his eyes glinted for a second before the dull, grey colour filled up his eyes again. "Now if you would excuse me, I have to get back to my meditation."

He shut the door in her face and left Sabrina to find the others. They were flipping through books and journals, reading through the millions of words. While Puck, apparently allergic to knowledge, lay across Elvis' giant body and suggested things he knew of from his followers that he so often boasted about. Uncle Jake just said no whenever he tried to suggest something completely unethical and disgusting as a cure for her slumbering parents.

"Hey Sabrina!" Daphne chirped.

"What are you guys doing," Sabrina asked, sitting down beside her sister.

"We're searching for ways to wake up Hank and Veronica," Uncle Jake beamed at her.

"I was actually hoping to play Snap," Sabrina grinned weakly. Daphne's face brightened and Uncle Jake begun the tedious process of trying to search his hundreds of pockets for the cards. Puck joined the circle.

"With fartface playing I'm assured not to come last!" he cheered.

"At least when I lose I won't sulk like a little boy," Sabrina countered.

"I am a little boy, if you haven't noticed."

"You've been alive for more than 4000 years! You can't use that as an excuse anymore."

Puck stuck his tongue out at her and Sabrina returned the childish gesture. Uncle Jake finding them in his chest pocket, dealt out the cards with swift hands. Sabrina tried to stay focused in the game, but the only thing she could think about was that little man that held her down and the way his hands had twitched in her face.

**This isn't my best writing ever but I promise that my future chapters will be better. **

**Reviews are very much appreciated :)**

**Ice.**


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